Timofey Mozgov isn’t content with just cashing checks for the next few years.
In his exit interview on Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers big man said that he expects to be the team’s starting center next season.
“I think it’ll change,” Mozgov said of his role with the team, per Mark Medina of the LA Daily News. “I have a feeling … I don’t think Zu [Ivica Zubac] is ready to be starting. I think it’s a different thing when you come in the league, you’re up and back and then in the starting lineup as opposed to going into the season in the starting lineup. It’s two different things.”
Mozgov, who will turn 31 in July, flopped hard in the first year of his four-year, $64 million deal with the team. He averaged just 7.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks per game and was made a healthy scratch for the last month of the season. On the contrary, Zubac, who is 11 years Mozgov’s junior, put up 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game as a rookie and flashed a much higher two-way upside despite his lack of polish.
It’s natural for a highly-paid veteran to expect to start over a kid who isn’t even of legal drinking age yet. But with the way the Lakers’ new management team has been prioritizing the development of their young players, Mozgov may have no choice but to sit down and be humble.
